Hello to you all, you lovely, lovely people. Haven't posted here for nearly a year - I'm in with the September filers too, posted off late in the month but we haven't even received NOA1 yet so I've absolutely no idea where we are or what's going on. I'm the non-USC of the pairing, and I've just driven my beloved to the airport after a fabulous week together so I'm quietly falling to bits and hoping for some good news soon...

Adam

bigsim, welcome to the thread and congrats! With regards to not receiving NOA1 yet, give USCIS a call the day after Christmas. You should be right at the 90 day waiting period for them to initiate an investigation. Do you know if your check was cashed?

Just wishing all the September Filers and their fiance's a Merry Christmas, or any other holiday they celebrate

Happy Holidays to you too, and all the other September filers. Wishing all the best for you and yours.

Just wanted to wish all filers a Merry Christmas and hope 2008 brings good things too all and have our loved ones with us for next Christmas. This process may seem like it takes forever, but in the grand scheme of things, a few months (ok maybe up to 6-8 months) is not long at all. Take care all. We should be happy and thankful that we have some one special in our lives.

Good morning September filers. Just wanted to check in with everyone and hope you all had a wonderful winter solstice.

Oh, and...

The contestants so far:

Jan 4 Mo Mati
Jan 7 mox
Jan 10 EricC
Jan 11 Daly
Jan 13 TheATeam
Jan 15 markjo
Jan 17 Brian & Kathy
Jan 18 Bobalouie
Jan 19 geostefan
Jan 23 kennyandhandan
Jan 28 Norman and Dijani
Jan 31 chuck_n_rose

Hey mox, hows it goin? My winter soltace begins tomorrow. I am headed to Russia!! My lady wanted to give me a special New Years present, so she is taking me to St. Pete! Keep good track of the contestant list because two days will be finished by the time I get back.

Wow, lucky you!!! I hear the New Years celebration in St. Pete is second to none. Enjoy!

Wait a minute, I thought the Winter solstice was about a week ago? Dec 22?

Someone needs to hang around and watch the forum. It won't be me, as I'll be leaving shortly to see my Fiancee as well. I should be back just in time for my predicted first Feb aproval. It'll be great.

Well yeah. But heathens like me use it as a drop in replacement for Christmas.


Sadly it will be me watching the forum. The next time I see my sweety will be when she's exiting customs at San Francisco International Airport. Everyone give a collective "awwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Have a great time and enjoy your trip! Approvals are just around the corner for us all!

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! What a day to remember.

It would be nice to get approved between 2 Jan - 20 Jan so we could celebrate together while I visit her in Rostov. I hope all us September filers get approved in January ASAP!

Wouldn't that be nice? We can only hope USCIS are back to work and working furiously!

If there office looks anything like mine, nothing much is getting done this week. Let's hope they keep moving though.

Yeah, it's practically dead in my office too. I just keep saying to myself that January is our (September filers) month. Figure if I say it enough, it'll be true.

Nadya just found out she has to work New Year's eve. She's pretty devastated as she had been hoping to celebrate her last New Year's in Russia with her friends.

I just checked the USCIS website ad their processing time......for california center says that visa k-1 is back at 6 months waiting................woohoooooooooooooooooo....is that mean that they are working faster now???

But I'm kinda confused here.....the normal deadline was 6 months to be approved and have your visa in hand but now is it just for the approval of NOA2 ?


I'm getting really sick and tired of all that *&^^&&^& but I'm putting my trust in Gods hands to make it happen faster....

Anyway I have the chance to be with my honey for the holidays so I'll try to not complain to much. BUT GOING BACK IS ALWAYS SO HARD ON BOTH OF US


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU !!!!! MAY ALL YOUR WISH COME TRUE...ESPECIALLY THE ONE WE ALL WANT

I also think January will be our month. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Wouldn't it be great to start New Year with NOA2 in the mail?
Let's keep fingers crossed.

Here is my positive thinking that helps pass the time:

1. This was my last Christmas without my filipina.
2. This will be my last New Year's without my filipina.
3. This will be my last winter without my filipina.

Haha. And the other day when I was scraping ice from my windshield I was thinking that I can't wait to ask my beautiful Jocelyn to do that job for me. Haha, I just laugh at that vision. But really I don't think she would do a good job because she would only be able to reach a little bit of the windshield so I would be looking out the far left side of the windshield as I wait for the defroster to melt the rest.

Can you tell I'm bored of this waiting?

Haha, tell me about that
And positive thinking helps a lot actually.

Keeping urself busy helps too, but it's hard not to think about being apart when it's Christmas...
However, like u said, it's last Christmas apart

You know, its thoughts like this that really keep me going. I keep thinking about 'next' Christmas and New Year, and knowing that when Im celebrating them I'll be with my honey. It doesn't make this year's celebrations any easier but it is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Roll on Christmas/New Year 2008 is all I can say

Looks like we have a very anti-climactic but welcome conclusion to our September filers contest, and Mo Mati wins it. Azmina & Abdurrahman filed September 1, and were approved today by VSC. Congratulations!!!!!!

Cookies have been mailed to your browser Mo Mati...

LMAO@Mox - gratzies on the Sept approval!!

I'm waiting for it to pick up in here again - has got really boring!!

That is so funny....we never win ANYTHING! How darn exciting Like I said earlier...there is always some lucky couple that goes early in the process.

The real question is when the first sept filer at CSC will be approved. Now THAT is a much more interesting question.

not to be the wet blanket, but...

CSC has only processed 2 (one of which i believe was a military expedite) AUGUST filers. Although, as of today there were only 68 August filers versus 227 July filers at CSC (and 163 June CSC filers). Incidentally, September has 68 CSC filers as of today. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the "now that the ball is rolling through July they should plow through August and then September" but...

also, heres a few stats i got this morning for CSC, #filers at CSC/NOA2 & % complete,
June: 163/122 75%, July: 227/131 56%, August: 68/2 3%, Sept: 61/0 0%.

I do think we might see a september CSCer get NOA2 in January, but i think we'll really start seeing us septembers moving in february.

Wet blankets are what keep us grounded. And...um...damp.

I think a lot of the slowdown can be attributed to the holidays. That's over tomorrow, and I expect to see approvals starting to pick up early next week.

Take a look at the CSC thread, I put up a new waiting list that might give a little more insight. Even with the holidays, the list does predict an average of 10-12 days earlier approval than the VJ timeline. I still think the very earliest September filers should be hopeful for a mid to late January approval, and it's still very well within the realm of possibility that the bulk of September filers could be approved before the end of the month.

Mox, I got a touch on my case on 12/19/2007. Does it mean much? I filled on 8/15. received date on NOA1 is 8/21

Here's how I think about touches: Early on in college I wanted to be an astronomer. One of the things that fascinated me about black holes was that nothing at the center of a black hole can affect the rest of the universe. This is good to know, because it means that we don't *have* to know what happens at the center of a black hole to understand black holes. There could be alternate dimensions or unicorns and puppy dogs at the center of a black hole, but because they cannot affect the rest of the universe, it is unimportant. (this is an amazingly gross simplification of the actual explanation, most of which I've forgotten because it's been...um...a few years since I was in college...)

To me, touches are like that. Could a touch mean something? Yes. Or no. Can you know anything about your case by a touch? Not really. All a touch means is that someone waved a barcode scanner over your file. It doesn't say why. Of course if you're approved the next day, you can look back in hindsight and say that's what the touch was for. But as a predictor of things to come, touches are the center of a black hole, and therefore meaningless. In super rare cases you can glean what a touch was for by talking to customer service. But this is the exception that proves the rule, and it usually only happens for people who are well outside the normal waiting times.

Having said that, it is rather exciting to see an update. Even though I put no faith in updates, I still check my case status online every day. To switch analogies, it's like buying a lottery ticket. You know there's no way in hell you're going to win, but then *someone* has to win, right?

Mox, that's a solid explanation. Thanks a lot. Wish you very Happy New Year!

Thanks, you too. And here's hoping the touch really did mean something.

Speaking of checking Online Case Status....I just went to check mine and was denied access. Anyone else having issues??

HAPPY NEW YEAR by the way....

Happy New Year and yes, give it about three weeks as per their new instructions

Cheers

Welcome to January, September filers! This is our month! I don't expect all of us to be approved in January, but I do expect to see a significant number.

Happy new year all!

Happy New Year to all. Hope wonderful things in 2008.

Well, everything's quiet here for the last few days! I guess we're all just holding our breath that January will start to be the month for September filers! I'd be super excited to see an NOA2 in February though, that's for sure!

Hang in there everyone! Approvals are coming soon!

The good news is that there is a September approval from VSC. Cali & Douglas sent their packet September 8, received NOA2 today. Congratulations!!!

Well a huge congrats to them... and HERE ARE fingers crossed that we will see a bunch of September filers coming through with approvals this month...
I have just had the fortune of my darling USC over here in Australia for the past 2 weeks and it was WONDERFUL to spend time with him, but absolutely heartbreaking when we took him to the airport yesterday morning (Aus time) I turned into a bawling mess.... Oh well all we know is that at some point in the next few months this part of it will be OVER, in the meantime I am heading over to the USA for a few weeks in February to spend some time with him and do some pre-wedding planning... so now it is a countdown for that trip far better than the pacing that I keep doing trying to countdown to our NOA2 or interview...

have a GREAT day folks and HAPPY 2008 to all
Tracy

Heya Tracy!

So happy for you both that you were able to spend some time with each other. Don't fret, February will be here before you can blink an eye! Instead, waste that energy pitying me, who hasn't seen his sweetheart since early September. Hope the wedding planning goes smoothly, sounds more like a working vacation to me!

I will feel pity for you Mox, but I haven't seem my baby since early Sept. also. So I spend my time at home reading VJ, remodeling my house so I can rent it out, while also looking for a bigger house to buy. I can't wait til we are together. I know when the day has come and some time has passed, this time we all wait, will all be worth it and not seem that long at all. Good luck to all.

Last time i saw my special someone was in July, so i feel ur pain too guys
But, thank God, we have mail, email, skype, yahoo, phone, webcam and all that stuff. Dunno what i would do, if it was like 1700 now. Let's stay positive

Agreed, staying positive is a good thing. I'm glad that this thread hasn't devolved into an anger-fest.

We're down to just phone calls and normal mail right now. Her laptop is on the fritz and she hates using the internet cafe because of prying eyes. I've been there and they have people literally packed elbow to elbow. Makes writing love letters a little tough.

Yeah, phone calls help, at least i can hear his voice and get any sort of emotions other than smiley faces in emails

I still decided to pay all that money and go to see him for a week in February. It's worth every penny
Maybe NOA2 will be there too

The date on my timeline moved all the way up to March 4th...

Aww....I know how you feel ours moved from march 3 to march 17th ...whats going onnnnnnnnnnnnnn?? The wedding is planned in may......grrr ... But oh well..i guess we wait a bit longer and we'll call the senator loll......( no kidding )

I'm really sick and tired of all that crap...but i shouldnt complain to much as i can go any time in US to be with him.


Keep smiling....we are almost there....just think of those who try to get a k-3...they can be stcuk waiting for 2-3 years....

have a good day!

congrats September filers on your first approval! it's the first stone in a mighty avalanche


by the way, did anyone else notice the rogue October filer in the latest CSC update list?
anyone know if it's an expedite, or what's going on there?

Do you mean Sakina and Khong? According to the timeline they filed in June, but didn't get NOA1 until October.

Standing in the middle of the mountain waiting for the avalanche...

damn this date discrepancy! it's a farce

Some may disagree, but, I'll say it anyways. The days have been going by incredibly slow but the months are passing by fairly quickly. To conclude, I can hardly believe that it has already been approximately FOUR months since we September people have filed. We are getting down to the nitty gritty.

Have to agree with you tgg. The days do indeed seem to drag, but looking back...yeah it's hard to believe it's been almost 4 months. No approvals from CSC today though, sure wouldn't mind seeing them pick up the pace.